OWC Pharmaceutical Research Corp (OWCP)

[I-Glow]

You failed to understand "The Patent Cooperation Treaty". It isn't a International patent as I have explained many times. A PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) application does not mean the Patent has been granted, since there is no such thing as an "international patent", and the granting of the patent is up of each national or regional authority.

In other words, a PCT application, establishes a filing date only with the contracting states. But means the patent application must be filed and granted in each state/territory - that is why OWCP filed for Provisional patents in the US - they are placeholders for 1 year - but there hasn't been a formal patent application.

From the same .gov site:

The Patent Cooperation Treaty was negotiated at a diplomatic conference in Washington, D.C., in June of 1970. The treaty came into force on January 24, 1978, and is presently (as of December 14, 2004) adhered to by over 124 countries, including the United States. The treaty facilitates the filing of applications for patent on the same invention in member countries by providing, among other things, for centralized filing procedures and a standardized application format. The timely filing of an international application affords applicants an international filing date in each country which is designated in the international application and provides (1) a search of the invention and (2) a later time period within which the national applications for patent must be filed.

And certainly it doesn't say a international patent (which doesn't exist) supersedes a US patent.

IG